this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
1501 points (99.1% liked)

Technology

59107 readers
3248 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Fuck yeah, I love tactical controls. There's just something nice about something physical you can feel and manipulate.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago

Why not both?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago

Never liked them. Modern smartphone is convenient , but a keyboard would be nicer

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

Especially EV car makers need to take note.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No I wouldn't say touchscreens are out, I would say augmenting them with physical buttons is about to get popular.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Plotnick, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, is the leading expert on buttons and how people interact with them.

I like that being a leading expert on buttons is a profession that exists in this world. You go Rachel Plotnick.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I’m just shocked that’s a cinema and media studies professor. I’d’ve expected human factors engineering or psychology, especially at such a psych school

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

Professors don't always teach in their actual area of expertise. I had a German language professor whose PhD was in Philosophy and activity published in that field, in English, German and French journals. It does seem like an odd combination, but probably not a lot of students signing up for a class in usability of buttons, even from the fields you would expect to study them .

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Leading expert on buttons says to use buttons?

Mild shock

Seriously though they are needed for many features especially cars or eyes away

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Leading expert on buttons says to use buttons?

It's exactly what Big Button wants you to think!!! Wake up sheeple!!!!!1!1!11

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Touch screens are shit tor buttons. They can be hacked. They can be unresponsive.

There's a load of other reasons, but either or both are enough to realise that a physical button is much safer. Perfect example of safety being lost in technology. Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

The worst is all the ones that cheaped out and put a resistive touchscreen. Making it 10 times worse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

And they dont work with gloves when it's cold.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago

Touchscreens can stay, but only for non-essential tasks like changing settings or entering addresses. Climate, media, and all other controls you usually use while driving should be tactile by mandate.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The answer is tactile buttons with displays behind them. Not sure why nobody is doing this in cars...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Because they are expensive. More importantly, how often does the function of a button is changed? Top right corner button on android is usually a back button (arrow/ x) or a profile icon. How often does a bottom navigation in an app change? Dashboard is an app that rarely changes.

I will do you one better. The screen in the button goes out. If the button changes the display based on the context, what does the button do? Is software responsible to recognize it cannot display an action and do something? What does it do? Should the user be responsible to remember what does the button do based on the context? This article is about return to physical buttons because they are reliable. Do you see any button on your cars dashboard that is unlabeled? Do you remember looking up in a manual what a weirdly iconed button does? On any piece of hardware.

This is from users perspecrtive alone.

Lets do the manufacturer. Imagine that screen buttons have SKUs. Dashboards have SKUs. Screen buttons have versioned drivers. Screen buttons need power delivery. Data lanes on pcbs. And fuck else.

Now imagine that you have a physical button. It costs cents. It closes one lane. Maybe needs power for a led.

Who the fuck wants screen buttons?

Finally. What the fuck multiple screen buttons solve that a single screen that can be any number of any buttons couldnt?

Because sure as fuck they wont solve for context, clarity and reliablity.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Because touch screens are cheap and put the onus of design onto the programmers of apps.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Thank god! Touch screens on the stuff in cars are a huge pain in the ass if you have hands as big as mine and the icons are all tiny

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 116 points 1 day ago (5 children)

They are more safe since people can feel the buttons without taking their eyes off of the road. I don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to use touchscreens.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 day ago (18 children)

It had nothing to do with being a good idea. It was just the more profitable idea. Tactile controls cost more to install than a cheap touchscreen with a dogshit GUI. Bonus being you have a proprietary part, the consumer can't easily swap out later if they want. So you've baked in some nice obsolescence to boot.

Ain't capitalism great? Race to the bottom.

load more comments (18 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

One word. Tesla.

It became the Apple of automobiles and everyone was rushing to copy them. Then came the fall of Elon and everyone is realizing how full of shit the company is.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

That's true.

With a T9 phone, I used to be able to send a complete text message without ever taking my eyes off the road.

Now that I've got a touchscreen I'm swerving all over the place every time I try to text. It's way less safe.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't text while you are driving. What the fuck?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago

Woosh, hopefully?

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 day ago

Should be illegal to have touchscreen controls in a car, it requires you to look at it to effectively control it, which means the car forces you to ignore the road to do anything.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Cool, now bring back single cab light trucks with full length beds.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Id settle just for a truck that isnt very clearly pandering "im a big boy!" energy. There all way too fucking big for no god damn reason other than validation of ego. Bunch of weak fucking man babies need some million ton 3 lane wide truck just so they can pretend theyre a big strong man to themselves and everyone else, despite never using the truck for what its purpose is supposed to be.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 143 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Can we address headlights that are brighter than the sun now?

[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 day ago (6 children)

my issue isn't really with the brightness, it's the height. Don't get me wrong bright headlights are annoying as fuck, but a huge ass truck behind me with their headlights literally higher than my back window is insane.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (14 replies)
[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 day ago (17 children)

I'm so glad I kept my car and weathered through this shitty phase of car manufacturing.

If only there was hope for weathering through the data collection, subscription-based features and the death of sedans though...

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Also, bring back gauges, instead of idiot-lights. It's nice to know when a problem is beginning (overheating, etc) before it becomes a crisis when you have no choice but to pull over.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 325 points 2 days ago (21 children)
load more comments (21 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

I'm gonna buy a Garmin instinct because I realized I don't use 95% of my galaxy Watch's "smart" features.

[–] [email protected] 205 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (12 children)

Touchscreens were never popular with customers. Manufacturers kept cramming touchscreens in cars and using them to control everything becuase they were being stupid with new tech.

Edit: I guess I should have been clearer. I was talking about as a replacement for tactile controlls in a car like the article is talking about. Reverse cameras and other things that are good to have a touch screen for make perfect sense but using your touch screen to control your Air conditioning in a way that you have to divert your attention from the road to operate sliders and buttons on a touch screen is dumb as hell.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I just want to say that I think this is the dash from my old car a Toyota Yaris.

I miss you ole' buddy. I'm sorry you got rear ended and totaled. You were a great car.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›